It all started in Zum Willi, a cosy bistro bar just round the corner from Jürgen Klopp’s apartment in Mainz, in 2005. It was there that the young, exuberant coach of the city’s football team, Mainz 05, bumped into Dieter Gruschwitz, the head of sports at ZDF, one of Germany’s largest television channels. The two fell into conversation, discovering that they were near-neighbours and regulars at Zum Willi. A friendship was forged.

“That year we were looking for a new expert to help present our coverage of the 2006 World Cup,” Gruschwitz says. “It was a risk because he was